While I am so excited that the weather in New York will actually reach (dare I say it) 80 degrees, I am still taking in a good book. I am reading a fascinating, yet heart-breaking autobiography. That Bird Has My Wings: the Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row, written by Jarvis Jay Masters is a compelling memoir that talks about all that he went through and what he continues to discover about himself.
That Bird Has My Wings, on sale in September of 2009, chronicles his early life, growing up with his four siblings and being surrounded by drugs at the hands of his mother and stepfather. He also shares how he survived violence at the hands of his biological father. They were left home alone days and weeks at a time, with no food or even the proper basic care. After he and his siblings were taken out of the home by social services, they were put in the foster care system where his life became extremely unstable. He was sentenced to prison at 19 for armed robbery and was put on death row at age 23 for being named an accessory in the death of a prison guard. Since being in prison, he has written one book and several articles. He also won a PEN Award for one of his poems. What is even more amazing is that he does all of his writing with ball point pen filler, as that is the only writing instrument available to those in maximum security prison.
Currently there is a campaign where the goal is to get his sentence overturned. There are those that believe he is innocent and the California Supreme Court is investigating new evidence that could lead to his release. More information can be found on www.freejarvis.org.
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Earlier in the year, I blogged about a book entitled, That Bird Has My Wings: the Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row, by Jarvis Jay Masters. That Bird Has My Wings is a compelling memoir about a man who endured an extremely hard life and is now on death row. Check out my article.